Will it be James “Bilbo Baggins” McAvoy?

The Daily Express may have the answer to the question that has kept the imaginations of Hobbit fans firing on all cylinders in recent weeks: Who are Del Toro and Jackson planning to cast in the lead of The Hobbit?So, Mr. Tumnus… how’s your Ian Holm impression?

If they’re casting a younger actor to play a younger Bilbo, well… they could certainly do worse than Mcavoy.

I’d already imagined him in the role of a character called Deuneroi in a story called…

Jeffrey Overstreet departed the Patheos network in order to escape click-bait advertisements that were offending him and his readers. He will re-launch Looking Closer at lookingcloser.org soon. He is the author of The Auralia Thread, a four-volume fantasy series that begins with Auralia's Colors, and a memoir of "dangerous moviegoing" called Through a Screen Darkly. He teaches creative writing and film studies; speaks internationally about art and faith; served as Writer-in-Residence at Covenant College; and is employed by Seattle Pacific University as a project manager, copyeditor, and writer.

genebranaman

Jack Black as Bilbo . . .

The surest way to keep me out of the cinema. King Kong had a whole lot wrong with it but Black’s perf was its worst aspect, IMO. I realize this is quite badly phrased but . . . As an actor, the man is incapable of not being self aware. While this works in some films (School of Rock, for instance), it’s the kiss of death for others. Like The Hobbit. He’d kill the film. Why has he even been considered?

McAvoy has the winsomness the story needs. Go James!

glennmccarty

I agree about McAvoy, but did you catch the line about Jack Black being in the running? What the heck is up with that?